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Ranchi: Chasing a 139-run target on a slow Ranchi wicket against the Chennai Super Kings, the Royal Challengers Bangalore got over the line with five wickets in hand and one ball to spare.
Yuvraj Singh smashed 8 runs in 2 balls in the final over as RCB held their nerve to win by 5 wickets with 1 ball to spare at JSCA International Stadium Complex, Ranchi on Sunday.
Led by an innings-steadying knock by Chris Gayle and handy contributions by the likes of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Yuvraj Singh, the visitors pulled off a final-over thriller.
CSK won the toss earlier, and chose to bat first. Brendon McCullum (19) came out all guns blazing for the home team; he struck a six off Muttiah Muralitharan in the first over of the innings to announce himself.
However, after scoring the lion's share of the 29 runs put up by the first-wicket pair, the Kiwi opener was dismissed by Varun Aaron in the fifth over. And two balls later, Aaron also sent Dwayne Smith (9) back to the dugout.
Suresh Raina (62*) and CSK's latest inductee, David Hussey (25), then came together. The pair played cautiously as the RCB spinners bowled a very probing line. Raina, meanwhile, completed his half-century and remained unbeaten till the end. With Ravindra Jadeja (10*) for company, the southpaw managed to take the CSK score to a hard-fought 138 for four.
To chase modest total, Chris Gayle was successfully tamed by the tweakers at the onset. And soon, R Ashwin capitalised on the pressure mounting on the RCB batters by dismissing Parthiv Patel (10) in the fourth over. The RCB could only score 18 runs in the powerplay. But Chris Gayle then broke the shackles with a big hit over long-on in the seventh over. Even Virat Kohli got in on the action as the duo scored 15 runs off that over. But after the momentary boost, the spinners again pulled down the run-rate; and after the 10th over, RCB were at 45 for one.
And while the second-wicket pair added a handy 61 runs, Kohli (27) was stumped by Dhoni off the bowling of Jadeja in the 15th over. However, Gayle unleashed thereafter – he struck Jadeja for a four and a maximum to top off that over. At that point, RCB were still 53 runs adrift of their target.
AB de Villiers maximum, the Royal Challengers plundered 10 runs off the next over – bowled by Hussey. de Villiers and Gayle (46) struck a six each in the next over – off Ashwin – before the latter was cleaned up off the final delivery.
Earlier, CSK have won the toss and and opted to bat.
David Hussey who comes in for Faf du Plessis. Vijay Shankar sits out for Mithun Manhas while RCB have included Varun Aaron in place of Vijay Zol.
Teams
Chennai - DR Smith, BB McCullum, SK Raina, MS Dhoni (Capt. & wk), RA Jadeja, DJ Hussey, M Manhas, R Ashwin, IC Pandey, MM Sharma, S Badree
Bangalore - CH Gayle, PA Patel (wk), V Kohli (Capt.), AB de Villiers, Yuvraj Singh, S Rana, MA Starc, M Muralitharan, YS Chahal, AN Ahmed, VR Aaron
Brief scores
Chennai Super Kings - 138/4 (Raina 62*, Aaron 2-29)
Royal Challengers Bangalore - 142/5 (Gayle 46, Ashwin 2-16, Hussey 2-38)
Result - Royal Challengers Bangalore won by 5 wickets
Point - Royal Challengers Bangalore 2, Chennai Super Kings 0
